Duck Fox

Ah, comic book death. It’s perhaps the only thing more dysfunctional than the United States Congress. And with approval ratings to match, if the Comic Book Resources forum for this arc is to be believed. Look, let’s just get it out of the way at the start of this review: this book will not be considered good or bad based on any alleged “changes to the status quo.” Because Marvel is not going to permanently kill off one of their most popular characters. If they did, they certainly wouldn’t announce it months ahead of time, because that’s just played out at this point. No, The Death of Wolverine is going to be a four issue series celebrating the character before a very brief retirement in the underworld. Yeah, underworld, because there’s no way Logan’s going to get past security in the pearly gates (Don’t take my word for it, check out Amazing X-Men’s first arc!). How brief probably depends on how well Fox’s next X-Men films do—if they’re doing good, Marvel won’t keep him sidelined when they could reap rewards indirectly from the crosspromotion. If they’re doing badly, no reason to pull him back out when there’s a hope Fox finally crashes and burns and gives them the license back so soon. 

So how can a comic storyline make something that has been trivialized through the decades actually interesting and heartfelt? I don’t know, but if this first issue of The Death of Wolverine is any indication, we might at least have an action packed sendoff for the adamantium clawed badass.

The story opens in media res, with Logan collapsed due to injuries that can no longer heal. While there isn’t a handy summary page explaining this, the previous arc is outlined pretty well by exposition a few pages later. After we see Logan pass over about a dozen dead dudes, all loaded for bear and wearing fancy armor. So basically another day in the life of the Wolverine. 

From here we flash back to Reed Richards giving Logan a terminal diagnosis. Though he’s not sure exactly what will end up killing Logan, he knows that all the radiation Logan has absorbed throughout the years is slowly working its way through his now vulnerable cells. The fact that he drags all sorts of bacteria in and out of his body whenever he uses his claws is also of little help to his non healing body. Reed’s official diagnosis is that he can fix Logan and restore his healing factor if Logan would only stop doing what he does best for a while and take it easy. But to Logan, that’s just inviting the bad guys to go crazy. Turns out, Logan’s more right than the Fantastic Four’s own genius, because the rest of the issue pushes the idea of a “hit” being put out on Logan.  

We jump back to after the opening pages and see Logan get a drink from a pub and has a conversation with a friend about some decidedly not friendly people looking for him. He gives the bartender a warning and leaves. It only takes a day for said unfriendlies to show up, led by the always polite Nuke. Well, always polite when he’s not twisting your shotgun into knots. The barkeep gives the location Logan gave him originally, marked on a map saying “Come On Then, You Cowards!” So in other words, he didn’t get Mr Fantastic’s memo that he shouldn’t invite the trouble. 

The Death of Wolverine uses the next few pages to show off Logan’s cunning and preparation, as Nuke and his henchman raid the location given to them by the bartender, only to find a booby trapped boat, piranha infested waters, and, after Nuke finally gets to shore all by his lonesome, a dozen dead soldiers from various organizations. Logan’s basically had a party, and Nuke seems to be the current guest of honor. They immediately mix it up, and Steve McNiven’s deftly drawn figures capture the full brutality of their throwdown, with face breaking headbutts and full body throws. It’s a quick skirmish, but the inclusion of text boxes, colored to reflect a specific sensory input, adds a new dimension to the fight. White text explodes within a red colored box representing pain. 

“EVERYWHERE.” A pretty simple message, but one much more likely to have been handled with a couple sentences of narration previously, is delivered with this single box. By the time all’s said and done, Nuke is willing to tell Wolverine about the bounty put on his head. The reward value decreases the longer Logan is free. And by free, I mean free. Whoever put the bounty on Logan wants him. Alive. Logan warns him that he’s the last person who will be allowed to walk away, so he can give the others his warning. From now on, the Wolverine is loose. He’s not taking prisoners. He’ll kill everyone who comes after him. He then gets to his real question, who put the bounty on his head. It allegedly came out of Madripoor. From Viper. 

And so ends the first issue of Wolverine’s most pivotal arc. All told, the story has a promising start, capturing the essence of Wolverine by literally having him fight to the death on a deserted island. No way will anyone be confusing Logan for a friendly school teacher any time soon. Regardless of how long Logan’s impending death stands, or if it even happens in a way that we expect (some people are speculating Logan’s just going to drop the name Wolverine, or have his memories wiped), engaging with the core of the character and returning him to his roots for this four issue miniseries is certain to be entertaining. 

Read It Like a Fox:

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